


Five Times Perfuma Was a Friend (& One Time She Wasn't)

by NerdButton



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Falling In Love, Fluff, Idiots in Love, Scorfuma, ahhhhhh, them being canon makes me so happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:01:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24477640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NerdButton/pseuds/NerdButton
Summary: A collection of moments between Scorpia and Perfuma during their time in the Rebellion together, in which Scorpia finally learns what love and kindness truly looks like.
Relationships: Perfuma/Scorpia (She-Ra)
Comments: 20
Kudos: 170
Collections: Scorfuma RIghts





	Five Times Perfuma Was a Friend (& One Time She Wasn't)

**Author's Note:**

> So happy to see this ship being canon! Makes my wee rarepare shipper heart just burst, so figured I should at least honour it with something. 
> 
> Hope you all enjoy! :)

One.  
Vegetable: (noun)  
a plant or part of a plant used as food,  
such as a cabbage, potato, turnip, or bean.

The bowl scrapes along the length of the table, flying off and smashing into pieces after being knocked by her tail. Heart catching in her throat, Scorpia quickly grabs hold of her tail and attempts to hide it behind herself, scanning around the room for anyone to notice the mess she's made. The main members of the Rebellion are all here, but thankfully they seem to be too busy bickering with one another to take notice of her. 

Her breath of relief is strangled mid-exhale, as the other tall blonde girl who isn't Adora appears by her side, hands on her hips as she looks over the strange, green food scattered over the floor. 

_Oh, she's the nice one... who makes the food... is she gonna be mad at me?_

Scorpia braces for the screaming and for things getting thrown as she leans down, beginning to clean up the bits of pottery as best she can. The smaller bits and soft pieces of food don't want to fit between her pincers, and it makes her panic that much more, hoping Perfuma isn't watching her fail at trying to fix the mistake she's made. 

But the screaming doesn't come, the sound of soft laughter floating down from somewhere above her head and freezing her hands' attempts to lift the debris. Tanned hands come into her vision, helping to lift the smaller pieces that Scorpia couldn't and placing them into the bundle clutched between her own. 

Perfuma is still giggling a little when Scorpia looks over to her, now kneeling down by her side on the floor. She winks at Scorpia with a secretive smile on her face. 

"Don't tell anyone this, but I don't like vegetables very much either."

Perfuma scoops up the last of the vegetables on the floor, motioning for Scorpia to stand up again with a nudge of her hip. They deposit the shards of the bowl and the ruined food on the table, and Perfuma starts to separate the two into separate piles. She's humming a tune under her breath as she does so, collecting the smashed sections of the bowl into a different one and keeping them together, a mish-mash of blue and green tiles. 

"I... I'm sorry about the bowl. I didn't mean to break it."

Perfuma just waves a hand, literally wiping the apology from the air between them, still focused on the mess on the table. 

"It's okay, don't worry about it. Things get broken around here a lot anyways, we can find another use for it!"

Another smile and a wink, and still no anger. It's so... odd. Scorpia doesn't really know how to react, smiling stiffly at Perfuma's back as she's already disappearing past the large doors of the meeting room. The bowl and all its shards are away with her, no longer on the table. 

When Scorpia is walking through one of the gardens a couple days later, a pattern on the path under her feet catches her eye - familiar blue and green shards rearranged into a flower shape pressed deeply into the grass, and sparkling in the sunlight. 

_We can find another use for it..._

That path becomes Scorpia's favourite to walk along, during her morning walks in the sun. 

Two.  
Fruit: (noun)  
the sweet and fleshy product of a tree or  
other plant that contains seed and can be  
eaten as food.

Tonight is the first night that she's not been watched over by guards since arriving in Bright Moon. They had been restricted to just the door for a while now, and now they were gone completely; she's another member of the team, she has her own room and doesn't need to be watched over like a traitorous child. It's still the same one she's been in the whole time since there aren't many spares, but it's _hers_. It's beautiful, and roomy, and she can put her drawings up wherever she wants without anyone ripping them down. 

And... it's so quiet. She finds herself making any excuse to be somewhere else, now that Frosta and Perfuma aren't constantly camped out in here with her. 

It works okay, there's usually something they're supposed to be doing at any given moment. Night is when it gets harder - the Fright Zone had a persistent ambient noise at all hours of the day, and she actually kind of misses it. Well, she doesn't exactly _miss_ it, but she hadn't realised how used to it she had become. 

Sleeping with absolute silence around her just allows her brain to make its own white noise, and that's so much worse somehow. The guards still being just outside the door gave her comfort, knowing that she wasn't actually _alone_. Unlike now. 

They've got a big mission tomorrow, so everyone is getting sleep before it. Everyone except Scorpia, who is watching the clouds float past her wide balcony doors. Movement in one of the gardens far below her draws her attention, forcing her to squint in the moonlight to make out any details. There's no reflective gleam of armour, so it can't be any of the guards. A flash of green light from the same area provides enough evidence for identifying the culprit - Perfuma must not be able to sleep either. 

The castle is huge, and without the agility skills of the other princesses it takes perhaps a good fifteen minutes for Scorpia to make her way down to the garden she'd seen magic coming from. Green flakes shimmer over some of the plants surrounding her, marking the recent presence of the other girl. She holds out one of her pincers, allowing the magic to touch against her exoskeleton, and she's so entranced with it that she doesn't hear soft footsteps approaching. 

"Who-- Scorpia?!"

Perfuma's startled voice rips her attention away from the plants - a vase is suspended mere inches from the ground next to bare feet, held up by a cushion of leaves that Scorpia is pretty sure wasn't there before. The same magic floats around Perfuma as she swipes her hair back behind her ears and leans down to reclaim the vase she had dropped. 

"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you!" Scorpia moves to take the vase from Perfuma, who simply lets her with a queer expression on her face. "Are you okay?"

With a shake of her head, a smile breaks out across Perfuma's face and she laughs light in her chest with a hand against her heart. 

"Yea, I'm okay. I just didn't expect anyone else to be up, that's all." Perfuma cocks her hip, placing a hand against it as the last of the laughter dies off in her throat. "Are you okay? What're you doing out here?"

"I couldn't sleep. I saw the magic from my window, I thought maybe you'd want some company? Since we're both still awake?"

Oh god, hopefully she doesn't sound as desperate to Perfuma as she thinks she does. Catra had never liked it when she was clingy, said it was annoying. Perfuma is the only one that's always nice to her, what if she pushes her away?

"I'd love some company."

"Really? I mean... Great! Thank you! Oh, it's so quiet here in Bright Moon, I don't know how you guys can sleep with it. It's so quiet in my room now without you and Frosta, I miss you guys."

Perfuma breaks their eye contact, looking away for a second before focusing back on Scorpia. Under the dark from the night it's hard to see, but there's the slightest hint of a flush against Perfuma's cheeks. She gently takes the vase from Scorpia, placing it down off to the side and joining their hands, leading them further into the garden. 

"I like the quiet, myself. Though, it's all I've ever really known - Plumeria is a quiet nation, we don't have any machines like the Fright Zone or even palaces like the other kingdoms." Perfuma stops in front of some of the plants that aren't glowing with magic, reaching down to pull out a basket nearby. "But, I miss you too. If you want, you can come to my room if you're unable to sleep from now on. It probably won't be any less quiet, but at least you won't be alone?"

"Are you sure? I don't want to be bothering you."

"I wouldn't offer if I wasn't sure. It helps, just having someone else there sometimes."

"I... That's so kind, thank you!" 

Moving without thinking, Scorpia opens her arms to pull Perfuma into a hug before stopping herself. Maybe Perfuma wouldn't want to hug her? No one ever seems to want her to hug them, Catra had always pulled away and Entrapta didn't seem to understand why people would want to hug at all. 

Arms wrap around her waist, Perfuma's blonde hair tucked against her neck and her face pressed into Scorpia's shirt. She smells like the earth when Scorpia leans down against her, slim figure almost disappearing underneath Scorpia's arms and warmer than the sun commonly seen beaming down on her shoulders. 

Perfuma smiles up at her when she pulls away, turning away and grabbing a hold of the basket she'd left by her feet.

"Okay, so I know you don't like the vegetables, but I've something else I want you to try." She points to a couple plants behind Scorpia, with coloured balls hanging from them. "Can you collect me a couple of those from each plant please?"

Scorpia does as she's been asked, collecting the plants and placing them into the basket. There's all different kinds already gathered in the basket by Perfuma, weird shapes and weirder colours. 

"Um... What are these? I thought you said it isn't vegetables?"

Perfuma lifts the basket up in front of Scorpia's face, holding it proudly between them both. 

"It's fruit, silly! These are some of my favourites, they taste a lot better than vegetables I promise." 

Well, if Perfuma likes them then they must be nice... She's so nice, any food she likes probably is too. Perfuma leads them over to a bench in a hidden away corner of the garden, lit up by laterns nearby. Once they're seated, she starts to peel some of the fruit to reveal the insides of some of them, breaking apart others. A few of them, she hands to Scorpia and asks her to slice with her pincers, laughing even when the juice from one squirts everywhere and soaks her thin top. After a few minutes, there's a spread of fruit across the table cover placed there by Perfuma. 

"Close your eyes and say 'ah'?"

It comes out like a question, as if Perfuma realised halfway through that Scorpia might not want to trust her like that. But Scorpia does, and one of the various bits of fruit is placed on her tongue after her eyes close. They sit there in the garden, trying different ones with Perfuma explaining each of them and how they grow. Eventually, they have a list of ones Scorpia doesn't like - pears, plums, and blueberries. They taste kind of flowery, not sweet or tangy like the other ones. 

Perfuma likes bananas and grapes. They're her favourites out of the selection, Scorpia learns. Sweet, just like her. It fits well. 

A bowl of fruit appears in her room the next day. It's always full, and though Scorpia never sees Perfuma put anything in it, she knows where the fruit is coming from. 

It doesn't taste as good as it did when Perfuma had been feeding bits to her. 

Three.  
Thorn: (noun)  
a stiff, sharp-pointed woody projection on  
the stem or other part of a plant.

Sometimes, Scorpia really wishes she wasn't who she was. Always a head taller than everyone around her, too big and too sharp to be trusted to be around. She always ends up hurting her friends, even when she's trying to help them. 

And now, she'd hurt Perfuma. 

It wasn't deliberate, not at all! She'd reacted on instinct, catching Perfuma out of the air when one of the horde bots had sent her flying in Scorpia's direction. If Scorpia hadn't caught her, she would have smashed right into one of Frosta's ice walls and that would have been _unpleasant_. 

But... that doesn't matter. She'd still cut her, the sound of Perfuma's yelp from her pincer cutting into her arm playing over and over again in Scorpia's mind. Perfuma hadn't commented on it yet, simply thanking Scorpia through a thousand apologies as she slid back down onto her feet and got back into the fight. But it was bound to come, the annoyance and the anger. 

Now, her and Frosta were counting off the number of bots they'd destroyed for when they checked back in at camp. Scorpia is sitting off to the side of them both, rubbing over the spot on her hand that had drawn blood with a cloth. Their voices were muffled to her ears to begin with, distracted as she is with cleaning the stain off her hand, so she doesn't notice when they stop entirely. 

Scorpia also doesn't notice Perfuma sitting down next to her on the downed tree, not until a tanned hand slots itself into the same spot she'd been cleaning obsessively and forcing her attention away. Her hand is pulled away, held between two of Perfuma's in her lap, and unfortunately helping frame the bandage now adorning the injury on Perfuma's arm. 

Unable to look at Perfuma's eyes, she doesn't notice the other girl follow her gaze with a frown. Her hand is let go, left to sit aimlessly in Perfuma's lap as she starts picking at the bandage on her arm, unravelling it slowly. 

"Did you know, I used to hate cacti?"

The topic is so seemingly random that Scorpia finally breaks her trance, a curious look at Perfuma as she continues to pull at her bandage. The other girl doesn't look up, but a small smile appears on her face at knowing she's managed to break into Scorpia's spiralling attention. 

"No?"

"Yea. Pretty weird for the flower girl, huh? To not like a whole type of plant. They're sharp, and bulky, and stubborn, and honestly I didn't give them much of a chance."

Her bandage is off now. Scorpia looks away so she can't see the deep cut she knows is on Perfuma's skin, only seeing Perfuma continuing to fiddle with the odds and ends of her dress from the corner of her eye. 

"But then I did one day, and you know what I learned? They're just as beautiful and amazing as any other plant, with all the same good things about them. You just need to be patient, but even cacti - with all their thorns and sharp bits - still bloom. And those flowers? They're some of the most sought after in Etheria. Not because they're gentle, but _because_ they come from those rough plants."

Perfuma tugs on her hand, both insistent and patient at once, until Scorpia turns to look at her properly. The bandage is completely gone now, and she's bunched up the hem and sleeves of her dress so her arms and legs are visible in the bright light of the sun. She holds her arms out, close enough to Scorpia's face that she can see the fine hairs on them - and something else. 

Dozens, maybe even hundreds, of little scars and cuts adorn Perfuma's arms. Following the path Perfuma gestures to her to follow with her hand, Scorpia sees that there's similar marks on Perfuma's legs and knees too. At her concerned look, Perfuma quickly snatches Scorpia's hand up again and holds it against her chest. 

"Plants are more difficult to work with than people think. I have a lot of marks from being cut by things - some are bad, some are good, but most just _are_. There's no point in getting mad at a rose or vine for cutting you, they are just being what they were made to be. And I'm never going to be upset at you for just being who you were made to be, so please don't be upset with yourself."

Brown eyes hold her gaze, Perfuma still holding her hand against her chest like it's the most important thing in the world. Eventually she stands up, pulling somewhat futilely at Scorpia's arm to coax her into raising up onto her own feet, which she does after the last of Perfuma's words sink in. Perfuma tucks into her side when she stands up, staying close and keeping the conversation light on the way back to camp.

"Thank you, Perfuma. For... everything, really."

Perfuma just smiles against her side and doesn't answer, pointing out a nest of baby birds up in the trees nearby as her hand slides down to hold Scorpia's. 

She's right - sometimes, things just _are_. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Four.  
Flower: (noun)  
the seed-bearing part of a plant, consisting  
of reproductive organs that are typically  
surrounded by a brightly coloured corolla  
(petals).

All her life, Scorpia has only known destruction. Even Entrapta, in her pursuit of science and creation, still caused destruction everywhere she went. 

Perfuma is the first person she meets who _makes_ things. Just for the sake of it. She makes little things to leave behind, to show that she was there - flowers, food, art... Scorpia has never known anyone like her, not ever.

Scorpia asked her why, once. 

She had expected one of Perfuma's little monologues about the beauty in things - had wanted one. Instead, brown eyes meet her own for a few moments, a crease present between slim brows, before returning to the bouquet she had been working on.

"Do I need a reason? ...I suppose, it just makes me happy."

Perfuma's quiet for a moment, they both are, lost in their own thoughts yet still together. Something is pressed into her hands, and Scorpia reflexively opens her pincers to avoid catching anything with them. 

It's flowers - more types than she's ever seen before, in colours she didn't know were able to come from the ground. Perfuma is leaning back against the table she'd been working on now, the sun bouncing off the top of her blonde hair as she peers up at Scorpia with a smile. 

"Isn't it enough for things to just be beautiful?"

Perfuma's still smiling at her. Scorpia has never been allowed to appreciate things purely for being beautiful before... but she thinks she's beginning to see the appeal.

After their conversation in the sun, a fresh bouquet somehow finds its way into her room after every mission. It's the first thing to actually make her room feel less like a prison, and more like a home. 

Five.  
Wither: (verb)  
(of a plant) become dry and shrivelled.

_Scorpia..?_

_Scorpia..?_

_She recognises us. I told you she'd never hurt her friends._

_I am strong! But I'm not gonna hurt my friend._

She can't move, something has wrapped around her limbs and is holding her in place. It's... familiar? Are these... vines? That voice, it's familiar too. Why can't she remember?

_Scorpia, please stop! You don't have to do this anymore._

Perfuma..? Is that really you? 

Static screeches in her head, followed by the deep voice of Horde Prime. 

**Return to me. They are on route to my chamber.**

Where did she go? Perfuma! 

Oh, it's okay. There she is, she's so close.

_You're wrong. There's power, real power, in love, joy and friendship._

**And what could you possibly know about real power?**

_Friendship isn't a weakness. It's my greatest strength. And it's Scorpia's, too._

**I've heard enough. End this now.**

I'm right here! Please, don't leave me here. 

_Scorpia, you can break through this. I know you can._

I'm sorry, Perfuma. I didn't mean to. 

The smoke clears, they're gone. She'd managed to pull off just enough to let them get away. Thank the heavens for that. And... is that a flower? She really was here, it wasn't just her imagination... Static screeches again, harsh and scraping and tearing what control she had away again. 

"Scorpia missed. She missed on purpose."

"How do you know?"

"I know, because I believe in Scorpia."

The flower somehow makes its way into her old room - sitting in the same spot on her shelves that her old horde badge used to.

(& One)  
Blossom: (verb)  
(of a tree or bush) produce flowers or masses of flowers.

They'd done it, they'd actually _won_! From what Scorpia has heard, she didn't exactly make it easier for them to do, but still! It was over, it was all over. 

And wow, Adora really suits the new She-Ra costume. 

"Scorpia!" 

Frosta gives her very little warning before pouncing up onto her back and hanging down over her shoulder with a wave. Scorpia lifts her hands to brace Frosta against her, not wanting her to fall even though the girl in question would probably just find that fun. 

It quickly becomes a double assault, as slender arms loop their way around her neck from the front, Perfuma's feet dangling slightly in the air as she hangs off of Scorpia. 

"It's so good to see you!"

"It's good to see you guys too! Oh, I've missed you so much!"

Frosta removes herself from Scorpia's shoulders, hugging her properly before running over to where Glimmer and Micah are talking. Which just leaves Perfuma, who is still wrapped around Scorpia but with her feet on the ground now. She beams up through the little distance remaining between them, smile brighter than the magically charged sun above their heads. 

"I'm sorr--"

A finger presses itself against her lips, stopping the apology before it has a chance to begin. 

"No more apologies. You're back, that's what matters to me."

The hand against her mouth slips up higher, into her hair and moving some of it back into place a little. Perfuma is still in her arms, and showing no signs of wanting to leave. 

"Would you lean down so I can give you something?"

Scorpia expects her to tell her something, another secret perhaps. Or maybe even a gift, Perfuma likes to give people flowers as jewellery.

She doesn't get either of those things.

What she gets is so much better; Perfuma is exactly as nice to kiss as Scorpia had imagined she'd be. 

She doesn't need to imagine anymore.

There are a lot of words and memories Scorpia associates with Perfuma, but it's how she makes Scorpia feel that is the most remembered of all.

Perfuma makes Scorpia feel loved. 

Love: (noun)  
1\. A strong feeling of affection and concern  
toward another person, as that arising from  
kinship or close friendship.  
2\. A strong feeling of affection and concern  
for another person accompanied by sexual  
attraction.

**Author's Note:**

> Notes for this story:  
> Number 5 (Wither) is a direct copy of the script from S5 E10, of the things Perfuma was shouting at Scorpia when trying to get through to her. It's from Scorpia's perspective, and her thoughts during all of that, so if you're finding it hard to follow it watching those scenes over again might help.
> 
> I imagine Scorpia would probably have had similar problems adjusting to living in Bright Moon as Adora did, with the space and the quiet and the lack of abuse, ya know... But, I like the idea of Perfuma taking the time to be there for her like I'm sure she would have.
> 
> Gardening can be pretty harsh work, and Perfuma gets beaten up by plants a fair bit during the series so I reckon she'd probably be covered in random little marks from it - getting her hand caught in some vines, falling into some rosebushes, accidentally exploding a cactus and getting turned into a pincushion... That kinda thing. So yea, one cut from Scorpia isn't exactly gonna really even register to her, at least not until she sees her friend beating herself up about it. 
> 
> As always, kudos and comment below if you've enjoyed! :)


End file.
